Wright, Mary Herring

Born at Iron Mine, NC; deafness began about age 8 and was total by age 10, cause unknown. Began schooling in a hearing two-room schoolhouse, but in 1935 was sent to the "Colored" state school for the deaf in Raleigh, NC, graduating 1941. She wanted to enter Gallaudet College, but at that time the College did not accept Black students, and deaf Blacks had virtually no other college options. She moved to Washington, DC, becoming a clerk for the Department of the Navy during World War II. Returned to Iron Mine after the war to care for her mother; married James Wright (hearing) in 1950. Her partial autobiography, covering the mid-1920s through the early 1940s, is Sounds Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South (1999). Received an honorary bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University in 2004.